Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Head Start topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Former Head Start participant credits Maricopa County program for early academic success
Summary
Ashley Lopez said Maricopa County's Head Start program helped her young parents learn parenting and financial skills, enabled her to graduate high school a year early, win scholarships, and return as an intern and volunteer leader.
Ashley Lopez, a former Head Start participant, said Maricopa County's Head Start program provided her family key parenting and economic resources and set her on a path to academic success.
Lopez told the meeting transcript that her parents were teenagers when she was born and that Head Start offered them guidance on parenting and household economics. "My parents were young parents, 14, 15 year olds with a child. So for Head Start to give them the research on how to parent on how to handle their economics to be able to provide for me was very helpful," she said.
Lopez credited a staff member she named as Hetzer with encouraging her academic progress. She said she graduated from high school a year early with a full-ride scholarship to Grand Canyon University and that she received a Dean's scholarship for maintaining a high grade point average. Lopez said she is dual enrolled at Mesa Community College and the East Valley Institute of Technology, where she serves as student body president, and that she holds an internship as a teacher's assistant.
She also described organizing a toy drive with local businesses. "I actually was the head of doing the toy drive, working, together with biz businesses to put out boxes to get toys for the children. It went great. We every children had 9 toys. The kids are amazing. That's why I I'm hoping to come back and work with them because they truly have taught me a lot of life things that I didn't think I was gonna learn here," Lopez said.
Lopez's remarks illustrate one participant's account of how the local Head Start program supports young parents and prepares students for school and postsecondary opportunities. The transcript does not specify program funding, enrollment numbers, or whether her scholarships were through Head Start or other sources. No formal actions or votes were recorded in the provided transcript excerpt.
Lopez's comments appear in the meeting transcript as a personal testimony about program impact and her interest in returning to work with Head Start.
